Explanation:
Spooky shapes seem to haunt
this starry expanse,
drifting through the night in the royal constellation
Cepheus.
Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds faintly visible
in dimly reflected starlight.
Far from your own neighborhood
on planet Earth, they lurk at the edge of the
Cepheus Flare
molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away.
Over 2 light-years across and brighter than the other ghostly apparitions,
the nebula known as
vdB 141 or
Sh2-136
near the center of the field is even seen in infrared light.
Also cataloged as
Bok globuleCB230,
the core of that cloud is collapsing
and is likely a binary star system in the early stages of formation.